Top of my to-visit-list during a week-long visit to Charleston, South Carolina, was the newly opened, highly acclaimed International African American Museum, located on the very waterfront The museum has been designed to share the myriad unvarnished stories of the African American experience across generations, the trauma and triumph that gave rise to a resilient people.
This remarkable gallery and exhibits archive took many years, in fact over two decades to unveil given that historical and contemporary racial justice and social equality remains an ever-evolving and complex factor in American life. This is not a museum that is mired entirely in the past. It feels alive, vibrant, pulsating with multi-media, artifacts, a dynamic and inviting family heritage center.
The museum presides over Gadsden’s Wharf, port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America. It is a place of tragedy and death in the past, but certainly one of pilgrimage and reconciliation today.
The Ancestors Memorial Garden sits beneath the 13 foot museum and is free for visitor's to wander and contemplate. Landscape architect Walter Hood thoughtfully considered multifaceted ways to link Charleston to a network of global sites of memory connected by the history of slavery and its legacies. From its Palm Grove studded with Canary Island Palms, a reflection of the African Diaspora, to its Sweetgrass Field filled with waist-high grasses that serve as the foundation of Lowcountry basket weaving traditions, each feature of the African Ancestors Memorial Garden tells its own story.
I learned about the Low Country Gullah Geechee culture earlier in the week during a visit to Boone Hall Plantation. It was interesting to visit the museum afterwards, having absorbed the stories told by Black American educators at the former plantation in the setting of surviving brick buildings that housed centuries of enslaved people. I'd had mixed feelings about this gray area of tourism, but later, understood that opting not to learn about the abominations of the past is to continue to sweep the truth under the proverbial rug. Docents at Boone Hall did not focus on the life of the plantation owners. The emphasis is finally on the African American story, which, for far too long, was buried along with the millions of enslaved people who spent their entire lives in bondage.
The International African American Museum's Center for Family History is a groundbreaking research center dedicated to assisting individuals to reconnect with their family history and ancestors. Experienced genealogists and people just getting started on their journey are invited to find connections to their African ancestors and discover more of their family story.
The International African American Museum explores cultures and knowledge systems retained and adapted by Africans in the Americas and the diverse journeys and achievements of these individuals and their descendants in South Carolina, the United States, and throughout the African Diaspora. Click here to explore digital explorations of culture and knowledge systems.
My host for the week, Elaine, is an ardent foodie. She's a fan of Soul Food and we took a break from the museum for an hour to walk to lunch at Hannibal's Kitchen.
I can't imagine a more delicious and perfect meal during a visit to this museum. It was a bit of a walk, but seeing as the museum doesn't have its restaurant open yet, a rideshare would only take a few minutes.
In 1898, the newly appointed USPS Postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, Frazier B. Baker and his infant daughter, Julia, were lynched by a white mob. In a violent objection to his appointment, he and his family were attacked at the post office where they lived. Artist Stan Squirewell, created Baker, a mixed media collage, where he envisioned Frazier and added him to the famous portrait of his family. White violence stripped Frazier of his life and legacy. The artist's work (2021) reimagines Frazier as a father and provider and reunites him with his kin.
Ashley's Sack, 1850. A nine-year-old girl named Ashley was given this sack by her mother, Rose, when she was sold to another slaveholder. Its contents held a few items for Ashley's survival and a precious expression of love from Rose. Decades later, Ashley's great-grandaughter, Ruth embroidered the story of their separation on the sack, connecting three women in one family across multiple generations. This object became a vehicle of remembrance.
